We're Reopening!

Friends of Washington Crossing Park Celebrate the Reopening of Historic Park and Visitors Center

Be a Friend to the Park

Help the Friends of Washington Crossing Park by donating or volunteering!

Upcoming Events

Wed., Aug. 4, noon

Fife and Drum Concert

Location: Near the Boat Barn
Fees: Free (Donations are welcome to support the Friends)

Relive 18th Century music at this midday concert.

Sunday August 15, 6pm

A Midsummer’s Evening of Music

Location: Thompson Neely House Military Cemetery
Fees: Free

The Friends of Washington Crossing Historic Park and the Thompson Neely House Auxiliary will present the Community Conservatory of Doylestown in “A Midsummer’s Evening of Music” on the grounds of the Thompson Neely House Military Cemetery located on the southeast corner of Aquetong and River Roads, two miles south of New Hope, PA. The program will begin at 6 p.m. on Sunday evening, August 15th, 2010. FREE to the public, you are encouraged to come early with a picnic and chairs and/or blankets and enjoy this most peaceful of settings along the Delaware Canal.

The Community Conservatory will be performing in this immediate area for the first time since its founding in 1988. With over 1,500 students, the Conservatory is dedicated to offering a wide range of high quality arts education and performance programs in music, art, and drama. This evening will center around their musical accomplishments.

In addition to the musical program, there will be wishes granted by the Twilight Wish Foundation especially for this evening. Founded by Cass Forkin in Doylestown, PA, The Twilight Wish Foundation is today a national charitable organization whose mission is to honor and enrich the lives of deserving senior citizens through wish granting celebrations that connect generations, making America a nicer place to age.

The program will end with a special performance by Emily Golden, internationally renowned opera star who now resides in Solebury Township. It promises to be a most exciting and rewarding evening.

For more about the evening, please contact John Touhey at thompsonneelyhouse@verizon.net or telephone 215-297-9799.

Washington Crossing

From this site, General George Washington and men of the Continental Army and militia crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 and marched to Trenton, New Jersey.

There they attacked and defeated Hessian troops quartered in and around the village.

This surprise attack and victory set the stage for Washington's subsequent victories at the Second Battle of Trenton and Princeton.

The Crossing and the Trenton/Princeton campaign have become known as the Ten Crucial Days — a campaign that saved Washington's army from defeat, allowing them to fight another day and achieve ultimate victory.

What did they see? Gusts of breath billowing from the nostrils of agitated horses being loaded this dawn onto ferry boats. Ice floes clogging the Delaware and the river's choppy water churning past.

What could they hear? The poles of Glover's Marblehead sailors penetrating the water with frigid splashing and oar-thwacks as they maneuvered the Durham boats across the inky river. They heard Colonel Knox's booming voice giving orders, rising above the confusion, as to how the assembled 2400 troops, cannons and equines should be shuttled across the Delaware.

What did these soldiers think about? About getting across this cold-cloaked river? About attacking Hessians, those fierce European soldiers allied with the British to help staunch this revolt? Did they think it was remotely possible that this plan of Washington's would work? To make a nocturnal river crossing, covertly entering New Jersey, march 9 miles, and attacking these Hessians at a Trenton outpost? Did they think that as night faded to daybreak that their chances of a successful surprise attack would fade as well? Did they think about their families at home this Christmas Day? Did they think about their farms and friends and villages? Slouching into these Durham boats, did they think what they were doing would change the world?

Washington's army needed a victory. Enlistments were soon to expire. The soldiers' and the country's morale were low. Winter was upon them and they needed to end the campaign season on a positive note after surviving through a summer and fall filled with agonizing failures. This was the moment, a turning point, a crossroads. Would the army survive to fight another season? Would this bring new hope or was it the end of a Revolution?

From the time of the crossing of the Delaware River to within the next ten days, the fate of the colonies was changed. The army survived and grew stronger. The British and Hessians almost instantly saw their enemies, these "rebellious farmers," turn into a formidable foe. And it all began here, by the McKonkey Ferry Inn, when a small band crossed a tempestuous river, because they could see, hear, and conceive a new future.

Read more history of this site